Joe Carrasco

Name: Joe Carrasco

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Grade: 12

School: Aurora High School

Hobbies and Interests: Medicine, mountain biking, cooking

Appearance: Joe is Hispanic and has olive-colored skin. He stands at 5'11" and weighs 152 lbs. He has a wiry build but is fit due to his regular biking activities, although any muscle is not obvious at a glance. His limbs are a bit too long for his body and he has a thin, gaunt face. Unlike the rest of him, his nose is large and pudgy. His thick, black hair always sticks out in odd directions regardless of how much he attempts to brush it, and it reaches past his chin. His eyes are light brown and often have dark shadows underneath them, usually from staying up too late. Joe requires glasses to read and can usually be seen wearing wire-rimmed glasses during school hours or while studying at home, though he removes them at other times.

Joe doesn't pay much attention to his clothes and wears whatever he finds convenient, and his clothes are consistently crumpled as if he'd slept in them. On the day of the abduction he was wearing a green hoodie over a white t-shirt, faded blue jeans and black sneakers.

Biography: Joe's parents, Matias and Fran Carrasco, as well as his aunt, Claudia, were born in Chile and moved to America only a few years before Joe was born. Matias and Claudia were from a family that only managed to earn enough money to send one of their children, Matias, to college. Matias worked hard and eventually became a doctor. Years later, he moved to America with his wife and his sister so that he and his family would hopefully be able to find better work, and in turn have the money to provide proper educations for any future family members. Joe was born in America and his parents gave him what they thought was an American name in order to help him fit in. Joe has only been to Chile once, in order to visit some relatives, and although he primarily speaks Spanish at home he has always considered himself an American rather than a Chilean.

Although Joe was always somewhat shy, this shyness became much worse when he started school. As he'd been raised by Spanish-speaking parents, when he started school he had difficulty with English and spoke with a heavy accent, despite his father's attempts to teach him rudimentary English. This got him mocked for talking funny at school, as most of the children were too young to know there was a reason for it. Although Joe picked up English properly and had adapted an American accent by the end of elementary school, he still has the subconscious idea that talking will get him laughed at, and as such tends to have trouble speaking to others.

Joe's parents were very insistent on Joe becoming a doctor as well and rigidly controlled what classes he could pick and what activities he pursued, always trying to guide him towards things that would help him become one. It started small, like constantly challenging him to games of Operation when he was little and giving him picture books on the human body. When he got older, he was presented with more detailed books, and by the time he entered junior high they were giving him medical dictionaries to read. Luckily for his parents, Joe loved reading about medicine even from a young age. Joe finds medicine fascinating and likes studying how everything in the human body fits together and what can cause it to break down. Being a doctor would be his ideal career if it wasn't for one thing; Joe is afraid of blood and tends to freak out badly whenever someone gets hurt around him. This extends to animals and even looking at squished bugs makes Joe feel sick.

Joe brought this fear of blood up with his parents once, and asked if they would mind if he tried for a less bloody occupation. The only occupation that he could think of that he'd enjoy besides medicine would be being a chef. Cooking was a hobby that he'd enjoyed since he was young. Whenever his mother cooked, Joe used to like to help out because he liked the smell and found it relaxing. When he brought up the possibility of being a chef to his parents, however, his father shouted him down, saying that he hadn't moved all the way from Chile just so his son could flip burgers in a fast-food restaurant. Joe never brought it up again.

From a young age, Joe's parents pushed him to excel in all subjects so that he'd get the necessary grades to get into a good college. If he wasn't excelling, they decided he wasn't trying hard enough. They would spend most of their time at home quizzing Joe to make sure he wasn't slacking off on his studies. If he wanted to do something besides study, he usually had to answer a long string of academic questions correctly before he'd be allowed to do so. If he got so much as a B he was in for long lectures. This rigorous training made him intelligent and hard-working, though it also caused him a large amount of stress.

Joe found out that he was gay in junior high. Until then, he'd assumed that he just hadn't found the right girl and that any odd thoughts concerning guys were just platonic admiration and curiosity. However, then he met a girl called Jamie, when they had a mutual freakout over a dissection in Biology. The two of them bonded quickly and Joe thought that Jamie was the right girl. However, their attempt at dating was extremely uncomfortable and they broke up quickly. Joe decided that feeling nothing for a girl that he liked as much as Jamie confirmed his interest in men. He kept this a secret because his family, including himself, were very religious Catholics. He and Jamie stayed friends during middle school, but went to different high schools and fell out of contact.

Early in high school, Joe's aunt introduced him to mountain biking. Aunt Claudia had always been a rough, energetic woman less concerned with academics, and decided he needed something to keep his mind off his grades. She took him to the mountains and taught him about mountain biking. Joe quickly grew attached to the activity. Mountain biking was exhilarating and made him feel more alive than anything he'd ever experienced. It became a regular activity that he either did alone or with his aunt. Injuries occurred regularly, but they were normally just bruises or cuts. Although Joe still got squeamish or nervous when he got a bloody cut, they were small enough to not scare him away from mountain biking. This lasted until his second-to-last year of high school. Late in the year, while Joe and his aunt were out biking again, his aunt crashed badly and broke her arm. It was an open fracture and very bloody. Although Joe managed to find his phone and call for help, he was unable to do anything for his aunt because he was too afraid to go near her. He wasn't even able to provide comfort. His aunt eventually recovered, although her arm never fully returned to normal. Joe felt guilty for not being able to help and, terrified at an injury like that happening again, has not been mountain biking since.

Just a few days after the incident, there was a major Biology test. He had slacked off studying due to spending most of his time visiting his aunt, and his mind blanked entirely on the answers. Combined with everything else, it was enough for him to have a mental breakdown. He fled from the classroom, screaming about how he was stupid, that he could never become a doctor and that he wanted to quit school right now. After this brief mental breakdown, there were several rumors around the school on the subject of Joe's mental health. These rumors were all untrue, as Joe is completely sane apart from some high anxiety levels. After the brief breakdown, Joe had to visit the school counselor regularly through the rest of that school year in order to talk about his problems. Joe repeatedly insisted it was just stress and these sessions stopped at the beginning of his final year of high school.

Because Joe didn't want to return home to face his family after the breakdown, after school he ended up hanging out with his best friend, Travis Webster. Because he was stressed, Travis offered him a joint and Joe accepted. He found that the weed helped distract him and numb the stress about his grades and parents, enough so that he didn't break down again when his father confronted him for skipping class and making the school believe he required counseling sessions. His father didn't notice the red eyes he had from smoking, and his mother assumed that it was because he'd been crying or something similar. Smoking marijuana would quickly become a regular habit. However, it only helped Joe delay the stress about his grades and parents. Whenever the stress would become too much, Joe would smoke so that he could ignore the problems entirely. It's an unhealthy way to solve the problem, and Joe has started to find that stress feels much worse when he isn't high than it used to be when he never smoked at all, especially given the extra stress of hiding it from his family.

Joe's grades are still high at the moment, being mostly As with the occasional B. As his last year is in progress, he is attempting to keep his grades as high as possible and tries to keep a clear head before or during a big assignment or test. After a big test, the first thing Joe will usually do is find somewhere safe to smoke. Joe intends to go on to study medicine at college, just like his parents want him to.

Due to how much pressure his parents put on him, Joe's relationship with them isn't very good. He does try to make them proud whenever he can, but constantly worries that he isn't good enough. His father is prone to loud rants when Joe isn't doing well enough, but he has his son's best interests at heart. His mother is just as strict as his father, but a lot calmer and easier to talk to. Joe is closest with Aunt Claudia, but has been more distant with her since the accident due to feeling guilty about not being able to help her.

Like his parents, Joe is a Catholic. He goes to confession every month and it's one of the few times he manages to talk fluidly to strangers, most likely because having a screen between him and the priest helps. He tends to feel guilty for a lot of different things, so if he didn't go he would break down from all the bad feelings. The priest has had to assure him at least twice that getting a bad grade isn't a sin, despite what his parents might say. Joe has felt little religious guilt for being homosexual, however, considering it an outdated idea since reproduction is possible via other methods.

Joe has a strong sense of curiosity. Curiosity was what kept him interested in medicine, despite his fear of blood. Although most of the studying he does is to keep his grades up, he's also prone to studying non-essential subjects just to learn more about the world in general. He likes learning just for the sake of learning, and prefers it to learning because he'll fail if he doesn't. His curiosity is also the reason why he will often try new things, such as smoking marijuana, with little hesitation, because he thinks it's good to try things at least once.

Joe's jittery, nervous behavior is worse during tests or assignments, but he's almost always somewhat nervous. He is only completely relaxed while high or when he's cooking. However, he has a surprisingly high constitution when it comes to other things that are often considered scary, such as heights and creatures like snakes and insects. It is mostly people and the idea of personal failure that makes him nervous.

Joe is a very shy, timid boy who tends to blend into the background most of the time. This makes it difficult for him to make friends. To the few people he considers friends, Joe is extremely loyal and would not hurt or betray them for the world. Towards everyone else, however, it's difficult for Joe to manage more than mumbling in a conversation. Joe is usually afraid that he's going to offend people if he says a single wrong word, as well as his subconscious belief that people will laugh at him for talking whether because of the content or the pronunciation, and as a result normally stays silent or has difficulty getting words out. But if people bring up the right topics, such as bikes or the theoretical side of medicine, that is usually enough to lure him out of his shell and make him talk extensively for a while, and once he becomes friendly enough with someone he becomes significantly more talkative. The only time he can easily talk to people is when he's high. Joe has never dated anyone, apart from the brief relationship with Jamie, and has yet to tell anyone that he's gay as he's scared of how people might react, as well as the information getting to his parents.

Even though he's too afraid to talk to most people he will almost certainly stop to help if someone needs help with something that doesn't require any talking, like picking up things they dropped or moving furniture. He's a gentle kid who just wants people to like him. However, he does have a strong pessimistic streak. If there is even the smallest possibility that something will go wrong, Joe will believe wholeheartedly that the worst-case scenario is going to occur.

While his various issues, including his debilitating shyness, fear of blood getting in the way of his enjoyment of medicine and the belief that he's not smart enough for his parents, contribute to terrible self-esteem, Joe has recently got frustrated with his inability to cope with these things and has been working to change. As college is approaching, he feels that it's most important to deal with his hemophobia, and has been subjecting himself to a form of exposure therapy by watching bloody footage, primarily of surgery, in an effort to adjust to the site. For this reason, he once attempted to watch Survival of the Fittest under the belief that he could deal with anything if he could watch that, but after only a few minutes he turned it off, threw up and never tried again.

Nowadays, Joe can look at most pictures and videos of blood and fluids without getting nauseous, but still cannot handle live blood. He intends, over the break between high school and college, to start some proper therapy, to get over both his hemophobia and fear of social situations, but has not started yet because he didn't want to take so much time out of studying to do so.

Advantages: Joe has always been careful not to offend, and thus wouldn't be likely to have made any enemies. He has a decent amount of medical knowledge. Joe is familiar with mountainous terrain due to his mountain biking activities.

Disadvantages: Joe can get very nervous and jittery, and would be liable to freak out in either a fight or a stressful diplomatic situation. Joe is not good with people and would be terrible at making allies. If he didn't have his glasses he would be unable to read any instruction manuals for weapons or maps. His fear of blood will also be a problem and render much of his medical knowledge useless.

Designated Number: Male student No. 020

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Designated Weapon: Dressage Whip

Conclusion: We all know what happened last time someone afraid of blood got kicked around a bit. Somehow, though, I don't think B020 has the guts to go down that route. Bad parents don't breed winners, B020. It looks like you got the short end of the stick in so many ways. I wonder if they'll realize how they fucked you up when they see you die on TV? - Christina Stockton

'The above biography is as written by Violent-Medic. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Violent-Medic

Kills: Jason Meyers, Benjamin Ward, Kyran Dean

Killed By: Hansel Williams

Collected Weapons: Dressage Whip (designated weapon), Smith & Wesson .357 Revolver (from Jason Meyers, to Finn Grant), scythe (from Benjamin Ward), M-1 Garand (from Hansel Williams)

Allies: Jason Meyers, Jessica Murphy, Aileen Aurora Abdallah, Travis Webster, Michael Mitchellson

Enemies: Finn Grant, Miles Strickland, Travis Webster, Benjamin Ward, Kyran Dean, Katarina Konipaski, Hansel Williams

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Other/Trivia

 * Joe shares a name with a "Tex-Mex" style guitarist who is famous in certain circuits of rock and roll.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Joe, in chronological order.

The Past:

Pre-Game:
 * Blood Spilled, Blood Bound
 * Daily Exam
 * First They Smoked And Pondered Pastries...
 * ...And Then They Poked At Cushions
 * It's Traditional To Nap In Gazebos
 * St. Edwards Bake Sale
 * True Friends Are Jerks
 * A Session In The Bedroom
 * Tuxedo Magic
 * Mary Jane's Sanctum
 * Coming Down
 * The Friendliest Kidnapping Ever

V5:
 * In Situ
 * Shock Treatment
 * Come on, Everypony! Smile, smile, smile!
 * Dyspnoea
 * Solo Queue
 * Eh, anything's fine
 * The Things We Lost in the Fire
 * Repeat
 * Affluenza
 * Oh... Hi...
 * Everybody Looking For Something
 * Huddle
 * Metastasis
 * Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.
 * Confusional State
 * Remission
 * Broken Hearts of Gold
 * Layabout
 * There are some things a man just can't run away from.

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Joe Carrasco. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * There's a lot to say about Joe, and I'll try to keep it short seeing as I'm writing it when he's freshly dead, but Joe is and likely will remain one of my favourite characters in V5. He shouldn't work from a conceptual standpoint - his profile and pregame have a lot of traits that would've turned me off pretty quickly (stuttering, over-dramatic family life) but with Joe, Violent-Medic proved herself adept at two things: sticking to her guns with characterisation, and listening to feedback. The result is a character that is quite possibly the most on-point example of rock-solid character and a story that's a twisting and turning ride through the idea of morality on the island. Joe's conclusion, too, is a really solid metaphor for his entire character - he believed he failed so completely, so encompassingly, that he couldn't even end it himself. Powerful stuff. -- NotAFlyingToy